Many athletes believe that physical training enhances immunity and helps prevent upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) like the common cold or “flu” (influenza). They also believe that physical activity and fitness help them overcome any minor infections they do get. On the other hand, based largely on anecdotes and on popularization of a link between physical or psychological stress and “im...

Presented in this article, aimed at both the virologists and non-virologists among the readers, are the dark episodes of virology. These anecdotes overshadow, in comparison, the effects of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb explosions, both in impact and magnitude. Needless-tosay, the episodes listed here involve viruses and may represent re-recording of largest outbreaks of some viral infectio...

Your clients are besieged on a daily basis with health information from a variety of sources— the Internet, newsgroups, blogs, the media, as well as friends and family. Information is often piecemeal, taken out of context, or not based in sound science—and often contradicts other “authorities.” People are increasingly making decisions based on anecdotes and testimonials rather than credible sci...

The Case Against Amalgam ............................................................................. 1 Amalgam releases significant quantities of mercury. ........................................... 2 Mercury distributes to tissues around the body................................................... 4 Maternal – fetal transfer of mercury.............................................................

practices in a variety of fields. Although we applaud the impulse to replace anecdotes with evidence, it is important to appreciate some of the cognitive constraints on promulgating best practices to be used by practitioners. We use the evidence-based medicine (EBM) framework that has become popular in health care to raise questions about whether the approach is consistent with how people actua...

A few months ago, the Washington Post ran an article [2] titled, "Stop assuming that families with lots of children are religious." The article supported its case with some data from Pew (2014 Religious Landscape Study [3]), which surveyed 35,000 Americans, and anecdotes about the plight of large secular families that must bear the heavy burden of answering questions from strangers who assume t...

In Vinciane Despret’s book, What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions?, she tells stories about animals that surprise us, challenge our assumptions capabilities of animals, and illustrate how we might best come to know them. Despret engages with history animal science scientific methodology, while also turning her attention less conventional sources knowledge, such as Youtube video...